Retelling the old stories. Design, style & adventure on the north coast of Ireland & beyond. Follow the Éadach trail…

I was thrilled to be selected to showcase Éadach at the prestigious Irish luxury retailer Brown Thomas Dublin, for the second year. This year I developed some of my most popular prints into garments, a capsule collection of kimonos, a cape, scarf and dress. The garments are simple in structure to allow the print and…

A product of dreams, memories and coincidences, this print draws on the story of the Morrigan, the shape-shifting Celtic Goddess of War, Fate and Death. Her alter ego is the black bird, a crow or raven, that famously perched on the shoulder of Celtic hero Cú Chulainn in the throes of death. Like so many…

When I was little I often stayed with my grandparents in Dublin, and for years they schooled me in Irish myth and legend, and the folklore of this country. While my grandfather stuck to the more traditional, well known stories- the Children of Lir, the Salmon of Knowledge, my Granny would (and still does) tell…

I started mulling over this print when we were road tripping around the west coast last summer and happened upon the remains of the Cara na Mara on the beach at Bunbeg. I love ruins, wrecks and derelict buildings- I wonder who lived and worked there and what kind of lives revolved around these now…

One of my favourite things about Irish mythology is how many strong female characters feature in the stories. One of the most fearsome and legendary has to be Meabh, warrior queen of Connacht. She ruled for sixty years, and had at least five husbands during her reign. It was her competitive relationship with one of…

One of the first Irish myths that really stuck in my head was the story of The Children of Lir. Maybe because it was about swans, and I was obsessed with ballet and Swan Lake, or maybe because part of it was reputed to have taken place not far from where I grew up, on…

A couple of weeks ago I was shortlisted, and won the Belfast Telegraph Woman of the Year Award in fashion at a beautiful event at the Culloden. Such a thought provoking evening hearing the stories of inspirational woman in education, healthcare, the voluntary sector and woman who have overcome personal tragedies to go on to help…

A couple of weeks ago at the launch of our Drawn to the Sea exhibition I had a chat with the lovely Mayor of the Causeway Coast and Glens. She had a ‘special’ event coming up an wondered would I be free to rustle up an outfit? Turns out, she was thinking of something from…

So after a few months of musing, scribbling, designing, sampling, deadlines and packing (and just the odd tantrum) the new Éadach collection will be launching in Brown Thomas on Tuesday. There have been sneak peeks- my Children of Lir dress for the Belfast Telegraph Woman of the Years Awards, and sketches in our Drawn to…